TORONTO—A British right-wing group responsible for a wave of violent anti-Islamist street protests in the United Kingdom will attempt to spread its message to Canadians at a rally in Toronto next week.

A “support rally” for the controversial English Defence League is scheduled to take place at the Toronto Zionist Centre on Tuesday night. The event is being organized by the Jewish Defence League of Canada.

Tommy Robinson, the EDL leader, will speak at the rally through an on-line hookup. It is believed to be the first Canadian rally for the EDL, repeatedly linked to violence since it formed in 2009 to counter Islamist militancy in Britain.

“I am disappointed that the JDL would support an organization whose record in the U.K. is one of violence and extremism,” said Bernie Farber, CEO, of the Canadian Jewish Congress. “This is more than unwise and I sure hope they reconsider this decision.”

Dozens have been arrested at EDL protests, including Mr. Robinson, an alias used by Stephen Lennon. He was charged in November with assaulting a police officer at a confrontation with Islamists who burned poppies during a two-minute silence for veterans.

“The root cause of the problem is the Koran, it’s Islam,” he told the BBC on Nov. 19. “And no one has got the balls to admit it and say it and talk about it. We will. We’re not creating these divisions and this extremism. It’s already there. That’s why we formed. If there was no militant Islam there would be no EDL.”

Professor Matthew Goodwin said the EDL has links to football hooligan networks and draws most of its support from the young working class but unlike the traditional far right it is open to all races and faiths.

“It wants members of the Sikh community, similarly members of the Jewish community to become involved as a way of opposing what the EDL calls radical militant Islam, even though it’s actually just talking about Islam,” said Prof. Goodwin, a lecturer at the School of Politics and International Relations at the University of Nottingham.

Over the past three to four months, the EDL has been trying to forge links internationally and has reached out to Dutch far right politician Geert Wilders and U.S. conservatives, he said. “This is part of that attempt to forge international links,” he said of the Toronto rally.

The EDL support rally is advertised on the JDL website. “JDL supports the EDL,” the announcement reads. “The EDL needs international support to help it support the values of freedom that Britain was once famous [for]. Now is the time to step forward and stop political Islam.”

Meir Weinstein, national director of JDL Canada, said he was visiting Israel when he met someone connected to Mr. Lennon. The two later got acquainted on the phone. He said he was aware Mr. Robison had been arrested.

“I don’t know everything about the leader of the EDL but from what we see they’re on the streets and they’re very vocal supporting Israel, supporting Israel’s right to defend itself and standing up to political Islam, so that’s about it.”

Prof. Goodwin said he doubts the EDL message will resonate in Canada. He said it appeals primarily in working class districts of northern England that have little experience with multiculturalism.

“Your nation is on the whole at ease with ethnic cultural diversity,” he said. “So I think the message itself may not resonate. What might be significant is whether this turns into some substantive links between groups in Toronto and the EDL, and whether there’s any financial resources or logistical support that comes out of that because that is what the EDL is lacking.”

Our friends BCL and Dr. Dawg have been following this story for a few days now, so we suggest our readers take a look at their take on the JDL/EDL story:

That Meir Weinstein is involved in this is quite interesting. When former British MP George Galloway (whom, truth be told, we don't have much love for and consider to be a self-promoting twit, but we understand that many of our readers would disagree with this assessment) was banned from entering Canada, it was Weinstein who took some of the credit. However, Weinstein through the JDL was linked to extremism himself:

Its bad enough that the JDL and EDL are holding a rally against Islam in TO next week, but we also have that idiot Ezra Levant citing members of the neo-Nazi Heritge Front, like Marc Lemire, as the bearer of truth. Levant seems to be able to post editorial opinion in major "news" papers across the country including Toronto, Calgary and Vancouver. Now he has published a major new book sucking up to the Alberta oil sands companies. People like Levant are responsible for making Islamophobia normal and respectable. We need to oppose Levant as much as the EDL.

In 1933, Zionist organizations around the world rallied to bravely put a front up against the rise of Hitler and the Nazis who were persecuting Germany's ethnics, Jews, and honest Christians who opposed the Nazis. But there was one group of Zionists in Germany that HELPED Hitler and the Nazis try to suppress Germany's Jews. Research Georg Kareski- a Jewish collaborator of the Nazis.

In an act of pure repugnance, we now see the JDL in collaboration with the EDL British neo nazis. But it is no surprise how demented extremists work together. Hitler made in alliance with Stalin in 1939 too. What is very very evil in this unholy alliance, is the fact that the JDL are supporting the EDL which has neo-Nazi members who at the first opportunity denies the Holocaust ever happened.

Why does the Canadian government allow both of these extremist hatemonger groups to parade in public? What about the anti-racism laws? We saw in the USA how right-wing Israeli groups worked together with the neocons in the Bush administration to push for the unprovoked war against Iraq-> via their 'PNAC' ideology and 'Freedom Agenda' fiasco. Why are Canada's politicians and Jewish groups not up in arms over these extremist right-wing security threats brazenly allowed to promote the same provocative 'Teabagger' hatred-madness blazing through the USA?

Is it because the targets are Muslims? Well guess what- the Holocaust had 11 million victims- half of them were not Jews. So the idea that setting up laws to not permit denial of the Holocaust should not be about standing up only for Jews- it is about protecting ALL victims of scapegoating/ hatemongering violent prejudice.

The EDL are neonazis and the JDL are like the Jewish traitors who helped Hitler terrorize Germany's Jews. Wake up Canadians and Canadian government. In the 1930s the world ignored the rise of Nazism and Fascism - and look at the horrors that resulted. Get rid off these right wing extremist monsters exploiting democracy in order to turn it into a hatemongering draconian regime- we don't need these new neo-nazis.

eeyore: don't put any trust in the present Canadian government to stop hate. The federal government is run by free market ideologues aligned with Christian evangelicals - theo-cons. Under them, a committee was struck to "review" one of the main defenses against hate - s. 13 of the CHR Code. A report was written by an academic named Moon who would not leave us much of the protections of s. 13. The theo-cons are almost unanimously opposed to s. 13 if not the whole human rights code and s. 13 faces another Charter challenge.

What's left is a poorly thought out criminal code that has two provisions which both require the consent of the provincial Attorney Generals who have feared prosecuting hate mongers under those sections.

Take the case of Cobb. It took the local "hate crime team" so long to get approval for charges that Cobb had time to flee to the US. They even arrested him and warned him of the charges so he could flee because they didn't want to prosecute.

The provincial {BC} government is also run by the same guys who brought you the federal theo-cons. In case of the B.C. theo-cons, they are in total disarray and the leader was forced to resign as even the corporate media is called for an investigation into corruption and maybe organized crime as well.

Also, look at the case of Noble, the guy was found guilty of hate crime and then paroled so he could move to Alberta and points east to spread more hate, violating the conditions of his parole.

Who was recently charged? An old Aboriginal guy who was caught in a private conversation denying the Holocaust. His conviction was later over-turned and his neo-Nazi lawyer was back smirking at the courts.

The governments that have paid more than lip service to hate have been the Liberals and the NDP. But they are far from having any power now as the Milton Freidman/Bush/Reagan/Thatcher/ clones loot the public treasury and give away public assets to the already rich.

The only was to fight hate is in the streets..... and by supporting Aboriginal groups which face the worst hatred in the country (US included).

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A group of diverse but like-minded individuals, the members of ARC have come together in their common desire to fight hatred, bigotry, intolerance and violence because of the harm these antisocial behaviors cause to our society. In that effort, we will not use or sanction the use of illegal actions (such as violence or intimidation) in pursuit of our desired aims and if we learn of anyone who does use these unethical methods we will report those individuals to the authorities. Instead, we will use the guarantees found in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms that ensure freedom of legal speech and expression.

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Race Traitor by Elisa Hategan

At age 16, Elisa Hategan was an alienated runaway who became recruited into Canada's most powerful white supremacist movement, the Heritage Front. She was groomed by top leaders to become a rising star of the extremist far-right movement. An errand girl for notorious Holocaust denier Ernst Zundel, she was a witness to the illicit activities of an undercover CSIS agent and co-founder of the Heritage Front. At age 18, she turned against the group and spied on them for several months before testifying in court and going into hiding.